~ Acquired Brain Injury (ABI): from the acute hospital to early rehabilitation – more on: www.CaringforPadraig.org and www.ansaol.ie

Tricks

It’s no news anymore that Pádraig keeps 3-4 therapists sweating it out while they walk with him across the room. It’s really fantastic and crazy what has now almost become a daily routine. And everybody is getting better at it every day, including Pádraig.

What is news is what the lady running the centre with her husband – she is also Pádraig’s lead therapist this week – showed and explained to me and Pádraig today.

There are a huge amount of activities I had been thinking of doing with Pádraig without knowing exactly how to do them. They involved different senses and different cognitive activities and challenges.

The incredible thing is that all the equipment for any activity you could think of exists already. While I had found it impossible to find them on the internet, loads of them are in this lady’s office!

There are little bottles with different smells in them: from lavender to lemon to the sea! The little bottles come with cards associated with the smells. And there are endless possibilities to work with both.

There are little boxes with different items in them that make different sounds when you shake them, from nails, to rice, to peas and paper clips. Again, there are countless ways of using these to stimulate and train cognitive abilities.

There are buttons of different colours that make different sounds when you press them. All of a sudden, the movement of a finger or a whole hand provokes an effect! How motivating is that for someone who could not make any ‘impact’ on their environs at all!?

There are cards you can use to make up your own calendar. Just pick the day of the week, the day, month, and year.

The last thing she tried was to see whether Pádraig could write. She took his hand, put a pen into his hand and helped him to write his name. What’s the big deal, you might ask…. I guess it’s nostalgic!

Tomorrow, we’ll have a look, hopefully, at a special computer programme that can be used to test and train a whole wide range of cognitive abilities. Can’t wait!

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9 thoughts on “Tricks”

Such brilliant news! I can’t wait til you will be back home! I really look forward to doing some activities with you as I have experience in OT. Love from all in Coláiste Eoin! It won’t be much longer before you will be back with us again! XX